I Loved You First
by Shadoe Dysteria
Summary: Happy Mothers Day! : Derek and Penelope's Daughter would really, and she means really, like to date, but, she's learned it's not her father that has the problem, but, her mother. Mailia is from CLA, which you don't have to read first. One-Shot.


***I do not own Criminal Minds***

**_And in your arms we lived,_  
**

**_And in your arms we've cried._**

**_And in your arms our love has grown,_**

**_And it'll never die._**

"Daddy, please!" Mailia begged of her father, sitting on the stool in their bright, Penelope-inspired, canary yellow kitchen while fidgeting with her coiled, light brown hair.

He chuckled, moving around his wife as she prepared the eggs to go grab the toast that had just popped. He had tried to get Pen to sit down, it was Mother's Day after all, but, she was determined, for once, to not screw up breakfast on her big day. "It's not me you have to convince, Princess." It was true. It wasn't an ideal situation, but, he knew that, in the end, he'd have nothing to worry about.

Mailia looked towards her mother and knew she was going to have a hard time. Besides trying to convince Henry that it was OK (And he was fully with her mother when she said "no"), her mother was hard headed and stubborn; after all, that's where she got it from. And, when she said no, she meant no.

"Mama-" She began in a sing-song voice, her father trying to stifle his chuckles.

"Don't you 'Mama' me, young lady," Penelope responded, not turning away from the stove with the fear of overdoing her eggs. "I said no and I mean no!"

"It's _just _four years, Mama!" Mailia didn't think her mother understood how serious she was. She would get down on her hands and knees, right there in the kitchen, where Clooney and Maria had puppies, and beg. Seriously and ardently beg.

Penelope snorted, tempted to turn. "Honestly, Mai, how stupid do you think I am? Since when did seven years become four?"

Her father shook his head while she smiled sheepishly. "OK, so, I may have been a little off on my counting-"

"A little?" Derek interrupted, causing his daughter to mock-glare at him and he threw his hands up, faking surrender. He should have known better to get in between the two anyway. They loved each other like crazy, constantly butting heads and going up against what the other one believed. It was made even more difficult with the extremely open mother-daughter relationship they had, but, they made it work.

"Mama," She carried on, not bothering to dignify her father with a response. "You were the one that told me I could have a boyfriend as soon as I got my own job, didn't need help paying for the gas in my car and kept my grades up in school. And, I'll be eighteen in a week. _Please?_"

While she had a point, Penelope didn't want to dwell on that. Honestly, why her daughter would want to date was beyond her. She had everything she needed at home, why go out?

Admittedly, he was a good kid. She could have gone for much older and much worse, and, at least they knew his parents. Still, why couldn't she go for someone like Henry? Henry LaMontagne was a good kid!

"Mother, that's disgusting." Mailia spoke, the disdain evident in her voice. She and Henry, her "brother" for all intents and purposes had never gone through the whole "liking" each other thing. They had grown up as siblings, what with only a four year age gap, and, both found doing anything like _that _with a sibling, especially each other, would be the last thing they would do in the world. After they were dead. Killed by asphyxiation. Buried in molten Lava. Tangoing with Satan.

It was that bad.

"Jack isn't that bad, Mama," She said, scootching closer on her stool. It almost pained Penelope to see the way her daughter's emerald green eyes lit up when she started talking about him, but, she held her tongue. "He's Uncle Aaron's son. He even waited; said I wasn't eighteen yet and we needed your permission. He wouldn't touch me even a little bit. And I had to steal the kisses."

She said the last sentences with a pout, but, Derek almost growled. "That's because Jack's a smart boy and he knows where to keep his hands and his mind if he wants to be alive to use them."

She giggled. "Daddy, honestly," Then she turned her attention back to Penelope. "Mama, Daddy doesn't have a problem with it! It's just seven years, and we won't get into any trouble. You raised me better than that."

That sentence almost brought tears to Penelope's eyes. She had raised her daughter better than that, both she and Derek did.

The slightest mention of raising Mailia brought back so many memories. She definitely wasn't an easy child to raise, having her mother's tongue and her father's sense of bravado. She was a talented athlete, captain of her schools Powderpuff team and she was the fifth highest student ranking in her class (she could have been first, but, when it came to sports or books, the latter got no attention).

She remembered all of the times Mai had come in with a scraped knee, complaining that she "wanted to get it checked on before" her Mama "saw it later and yelled". She didn't even shed a tear, sitting patiently throughout the whole process of her mother obsessing over it a kissing the boo-boos to make them all better.

The embarrassing moments that she relished, like picking out a first bra, going to buy panty-liners, pads, and then tampons… Talking about sex. Talking about boys, what they expected. She guessed that was where Mailia got the notion that she had been taught better than to just give herself. She had, though. As much as she wanted her daughter to wait until she was married to have sex, and she expressed those desires, she also knew she could speak, having slept with her husband the first night they confirmed their relationship, so, she simply made sure her daughter knew her worth.

And then there were the girls. She was a girly girl when she wanted to be, inheriting her mother's sense of eclectic fashion, but, no one of her same gender really seemed to be ready to appreciate it, making her the source of ridicule for many girls. She remembered the many days Mai would come in, near tears, silently begging her mother to give her the validation that she was beautiful and smart and definitely, one hundred percent, a girl. (Though, after a while, Penelope got tired of asking that particular question and just advised her daughter to check it herself, which caused one fourteen year old girl to spend an afternoon blushing only to never bring up the subject again)

It hadn't been easy convincing Mailia that she was beautiful and worth something, but she did. Between being tall, well built (chest wise, anyway) and having an awkward frame for the longest of times, she had gotten teased to the high heavens and would often come home in tears. Penelope worked with her, showing her she was worth something…

She thought of all of the times they would just sit around the bar in the island in the kitchen, laughing and carrying on, driving Derek crazy. Telling jokes, telling secrets, telling everything worth telling, and then even stuff that wasn't.

She shook her head, trying to push the tears back that were threating to fall. She heard Mailia speak again, "Mama?" she asked, but, she ignored that, looking at Derek who had touched her arm in worry.

"You OK?" He asked and she blinked away the tears, smiling simply, amazed that, eighteen years later, they were still standing together.

"Yeah," She said, going back to her eggs that had not, miraculously, burned in the little moment in time that seemed as if it took her forever to think about. "Mai?"

"Yes?" The girl spoke, her look anxious, playing with her hair again.

"You can date him, on the-"

She didn't get past her approval of the impending relationship, what with Mailia's squealing and happiness. She and Derek laughed as their daughter bounded off of the stool, long arms flying and she flung them around her mother's neck, kissing her cheeks ardently.

"I'm not done-!" Pen went to object, but, Mailia cut her off, smiling as bright as the sun.

"I know, I know, there's rules and stuff, but, thank you, thank you! I have to go call him." She ran off to the side of the room, towards the stairs so she could run and grab her cellphone from off of her upstairs mahogany bedroom desk to call her, new, boyfriend.

"Hey, Ma?" She suddenly began serious, turning as soon as she reached the base of the stairs.

"Yeah, love?" Pen turned the oven off, moving the eggs to a plate. She placed the potholder down on the cabinet next to her and turned back to her daughter who was waiting silently until she had her mother's attention.

"You know I love you, right?" She asked, though, she was confident in the answer she was going to get.

Penelope smiled wider, blinking back even more tears. "I love you too."

In hopes of not having the situation turn to mush, Mailia smiled goofily. "I love you more." She already knew what was coming next, though, she stood patiently, smiling, until she heard it.

"I loved you first."

**Happy Mother's Day.**

**May 13, 2012**


End file.
